Arizona Wins Secret Ballot Case

PHOENIX (Wednesday, September 5, 2012) -- In a rebuke to a 2011 Obama administration demand calling for Arizona to repudiate the voter-approved protection of secret balloting in union elections, U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Martone today granted Summary Judgment in favor of the State’s position that the law is constitutional, Attorney General Tom Horne announced.

“This is a stinging rebuke to an outrageous National Labor Relations Board attack made in 2011 when that panel tried to subvert the sanctity of the secret ballot,” Horne said. “As I said at the time, this intimidation by our own elected leaders must stop, and today’s court decision is a welcome step in that direction. Judge Martone’s ruling makes it clear that the 2010 state constitutional amendment requiring that union elections be held using a secret ballot as opposed to using the so-called ‘card-check’, cannot be overruled by the bureaucrats at the NLRB. This is a tremendous victory not only for the people of Arizona, but for the institution of free elections for all people, a cherished right for which our forebears fought a revolution.”

He added, “Four states, including Arizona, passed similar constitutional amendments. The NLRB threatened all four states, that if they did not voluntarily negate their amendments, the NLRB would sue. All four states refused to be intimidated. However, the NLRB only sued Arizona, so Arizona successfully carried the ball for the entire country on this important issue concerning our basic freedoms.”